Hayakunnah!
(Episode 16)
By the time I opened my eyes, I found Michael, Ubong, Sister Elizabeth, Lilian, Amitabh, and myself tied to the bars of a cage on a cattle-driven wagon. My body ached, and my bruises burned, yet the pains couldn’t compare with the anguish I bore in my heart when I looked around, and Fiona was nowhere in the cage. I instinctively searched for the necklace around my neck, and to my relief, it was still there.
I didn’t know how long we had travelled. All I knew was we were approaching the savages’ settlement judging by the sound of drums we heard from a distance. The sun was already setting. I pressed my face against the bars to view the surrounding perhaps Fiona might be in another cage close-by. I knew within me that there was none, but I hoped all the same. My heart sank when I found none.
Stone sculptures similar to the ones we saw earlier lined the sides of the path leading into the settlement only that these were much bigger and intimidating. I puked when I saw several severed heads hanging on stakes. Many of them were rotten with flies and maggots feasting on them while others were skulls that had seen many years. I wondered if ours too would end up on those stakes.
When we entered into the village which was at the foot of the mountain we saw earlier; there was a grand celebration going on. Drums, the size of trailer tyres, vibrated with percussive rhythm. There were colourful decorations everywhere, and the people were in high spirits. They lined up the path, cheering the arriving warriors like they just won a major trophy. They booed us instead and threw things at us. They were scantily dressed like the warriors too, except that the animal skin also covered the women’s breasts. Both men and women wore big earrings made from bones.
Today must be a great festival of some sort. The people were shouting, “HAYAKUNNAH!” and sprinkling colourful powders into the air. I wondered what Hayakunnah was.
The wagon stopped in front of the king’s palace. The crowd made way as the warriors matched forward to present us to their king. Waiting outside the palace, on an elevated platform, was the king and some people I presumed were the royal council and family. Standing beside the king was an older man with wrinkled skin and heavy jowls like an old frog whom I suspected was the chief priest. To the king’s right was a distinguished warrior whom I later learned was the supreme commander of their army and the king’s younger brother. There were also the royal guards, made up of the fiercest and best warriors in the kingdom.
The female warrior, the commander, knelt and bowed before the king and the chief priest. “Hahutaka, mi chaka. Hu ka ni ntungu,” she said in their language, stretching her hand towards us.
None of us understood what she said, but from the gestures, I guessed she just greeted the king and presented us to him and his council. The king smiled and motioned with his sculptured-elephant-tusk sceptre to her to rise. He opened his arms wide and hugged her affectionately and kissed her forehead. After which she took her position beside the queen. With all the attention, she must be the princess. The chief priest tapped the ground with his skull staff three times to register his approval and commendation. The crowd cheered, and he laughed, revealing the lone tooth in his mouth. The string of human skulls that was his rosary clattered as his shoulders shook with the laughter.
The king raised his sceptre and silence fell over the whole place.
To be continued … Watch Out for the Next Episode!
